Practical Boat Owner – May 2018

Practical Boat Owner t http://www.pbo.co.uk 53

COMING ALONGSIDE

Managing the wind

If you have wind on the beam when

mooring, it is either going to blow you into

the dock or away from it. If it is blowing

you onto the dock and you aim for your

berth you will probably find that you will

be blown down beyond it, so you need to

anticipate this and aim upwind of the

berth. The opposite applies if you are

being blown away from your berth.

Essentially we need to remain upwind all

the time to prevent being blown past

what we are aiming for.

CONTROL

2 knots of boat speed against 1 knot

of tide = 1 knot over the ground = controlled

2 knots of boat speed +1 knot

of tide = 3 knots over the ground = too fast

with no means of stopping = out of control

Boat Speed 2 knots

Boat Speed 2 knots

HAPPINESS!

MISERY!

Speed over the ground 1 knot

Speed over the ground 3 knots

Speed of tide 1 knot

Speed of tide 1 knot

All of the techniques described

here work best if you are mooring

into the tide.

If you moor with the tide,

everything happens that much

quicker and you have no real way

of stopping the boat. You’ll always

have to have the boat in gear or in

and out of gear to stop the tide

from pushing you through your

berth and, frankly, it is a good deal

more fraught.

The stress-free part of the

exercise comes from mooring into

the tide, where you use the tide as

a natural brake.

If you prefer to go astern into your finger

berth, we set the stern bridle up as we did

for a bows-to mooring but this time we

lasso a cleat at the end of the berth and

then drive ahead against this.

With the boat holding to the stern bridle

we step off and set the mooring warps.

Remember that the shore cleat will line

up with the point where you bring the end

of the line back on board. If mooring bows

to in a short berth, you need to make sure

you move the whole bridle forward, or

else the bow will go through the end of

the berth.

5

With two turns round the winch click

into ahead and drive against the bridle 6

The boat will now naturally want to

come alongside nicely

7

There we are, secured safely to the

pontoon without fuss

8

My bridle line is marked with a piece

of blue tape. When the tape is just

off the winch, the boat is in the correct

position in her berth

Driving ahead against a stern bridle

Bridle

returns

to boat

further

forward

via a

block on

the genoa

sheet

lead, to

allow for

a shorter

finger

No midship cleat? You can use a block

The image (below) shows my boat on a

short finger with the bridle coming back

on board via a block on the genoa sheet

lead track.

If you don’t have a cleat amidships, or a

suitable genoa track, be inventive – use

the shrouds or a block attached to the toe

rail (see image right).